"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers,'" the children's television show host famously once said in an interview. "'You will always find people who are helping.'"

The quote, often shared following times of tragedy, was posted by Entertainment Weekly writer Anthony Breznican.

(Breznican originally wrote on Twitter that he was posting on the 50th anniversary of the show's debut, as had been stated in a viral tweet on Monday. This turned out to be inaccurate — the 50th anniversary will actually be on Feb. 19 of next year.)

On Twitter, Breznican shared a personal story of how Mister Rogers himself was one of those "helpers" when he needed it most.

"They often say you don’t want to meet your heroes because they’ll disappoint you, they’re just people," said Breznican. "But Mister Rogers? That was who he was in real life. He was that gentle, kind soul, and I experienced it."

"I guess people just needed to hear a story like that," he said.

Julia Reinstein is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.